New York Times’ ‘Well-worn Narrative’ Continues Over Missing Israeli Teenagers

Even for the chronically slanted Gray Lady, the level of anti-Israel bias has been shocking

A billboard on 40th Street, across the street from The New York Times‘ headquarters in Times Square. (Observer photo)

In what could be construed as articles found in The Onion or scripted segments on TheDaily Show, TheNew York Times has run multiple stories focusing on Palestinian “suffering” in their coverage of three Israeli teenagers who have been missing since June 12.

What we have learned from the Times is that Kayed and Hassan Jaber, Palestinian truck drivers in Hebron (West Bank), have no trucks to drive because of a one-day solidarity hunger-strike with Palestinians in Israeli prisons. This act of defiance has “shuttered nearly all of Hebron’s stores and industry.” The Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren added in her June 16 story, “Worse, with Israeli troops limiting entry and exit as part of a crackdown after last week’s kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, the Jabers were worried that Monday’s wedding party for Kayed’s 17-year-old daughter would be ruined.”

Ms. Rudoren’s narrative fails to mention these inconveniences Palestinians are enduring are the result of the kidnapping of Jewish students by Islamic militants. The culprit, always, is Israel and its efforts to find its children.

“The growing search for them and their captors further destabilized Israeli-Palestinian relations, and challenged the new Palestinian government’s ability to hold together disparate political factions and reunite the West Bank and Gaza after a seven-year split,” wrote Ms. Rudoren on June 15.

The Times also informs the reader that West Bank radio is playing “war-like anthems interspersed with bulletins about how many tanks were invading what neighborhood.” It’s also Israel’s fault that commerce is suffering as “the main thoroughfare, sweet shops and cellphone stands, car dealerships and clothing boutiques all sat idle behind roll-down gates or wooden shutters.”

In true Rudoren form, she cleverly creates mental images with her words—showcasing Palestinian women, children and families “suffering” at the hands of the Israelis, instead of their militant brethren who perpetrated the crime.

“By Monday afternoon, women and children peered from rooftops and balconies as Israelis in combat gear conducted house-to-house searches in Taffouh, a hilltop village west of Hebron.” She particularly focused on Ikhlas Emreish, who stood outside with “her husband and seven children, ages 1 to 18, after about 10 soldiers spent perhaps five minutes checking their quarters.”

Complaints about treatment of Israel by the paper are nothing new—some Jews recite cries of Times bias more than they say the Shema. From inside the offices of the publication, staffers can see a billboard, three stories high, that poses the question, “Would a great newspaper slant the news against Israel? TheNew York Times does.” Demanding the newspaper “stop the bias” is the Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).

In a recent op-ed In The Times of Israel, CAMERA Jerusalem Director Tamar Sternthal wrote:

Once again, the Gray Lady conforms to its well-worn narrative in which, regardless of the reality on the ground, Israel stars as the wrecking ball of peace. According to the Times, it is not Hamas’ kidnapping of Gil-Ad Shaar and Naftali Frankel, two eleventh-graders on their way home from school, together with Eyal Yifrach, an unarmed, 19-year-old civilian, that is responsible for eroding Israeli-Palestinian relations. Rather, the Times singles out Israeli efforts to bring the boys home as the key cause of friction.

Ms. Sternthal’s analysis is spot-on.

On March 29 of this year, the Times ran a feature, “Remaking a Life, After Years in an Israeli Prison.” The story showcased the life of Muqdad Salah, a Palestinian member of Fatah who murdered Israel Tenenbaum, a 72-year-old Holocaust survivor in 1993. Salah was freed last year by Israel as part of a prisoner release agreement brokered by the United States.

Lacing her article with warm and fuzzy quotes, Ms. Rudoren portrayed the convicted murderer as a kind soul and devoted family man wanting simply to “travel,” to “see people” and to “breathe fresh air” but can’t because a condition of his release restricts him from traveling and requires him to check in with oppressive Israeli security personnel.

In 2008, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began a three-week incursion into the Gaza Strip to stop Palestinian rocket fire into Israel. IDF spokeswoman Anat (last name withheld) told me in an April interview the Times reporter “asked assuming questions and was never interested in the truth.”

“I was asked why Israel fired on a tractor taking wounded civilians to the hospital,” recalled Anat. “I was unaware of the incident, but told the reporter I would find out what happened.”

Anat continued, “It turned out that the tractor was being used by Hamas as a shield and they were firing at us. But TheNew York Times reporter could care less about the truth. They had already determined what their story would be.”

Regardless of the truth, TheNew York Times has created a narrative in which only Palestinians are victims and only Israelis are oppressors.

Paul Miller is a contributor to the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity. He serves as principal of Pauliegroup LLC, a Chicago-based new media and political consulting firm.

this new york times has no journalists, only pundits who are ignorant, stupid and venal. it is never credible. it is not the grey lady. only the name is the same nothing else. this nytimes is a sodden compost heap composed primarily of Jew haters and anybody who will do anything for a buck.

The coverage of the middle east in the United States has been one-sided pro-israel for over fifty years, It is time for the truth to be told. Three little settlers are missing, thousands of Palestian children have been murdered. Throw a stone and be shot in through the heart, two Palestian children were murdered yesterday by I.D.F.

Suffering? Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, etc., that's suffering. These Palestinians cowards on the battlefield but masters at deception are winning their PR war vs valiant Israel thanks to the arrogant, smug, self-righteous Leftist American-Jew editors who are first class cowards. If they were such humanists, they would be in Syria stopping the bloodshed and executions of over 160,000 people instead of sitting in their comfy offices with their fat salaries passing judgement on a nation at war. These same "victimized" Palestinians have murdered and maimed not only thousands of Israeli civilians, tens of thousands of Maronite Christians in Lebanon, but even their own when PLO and HAMAS fought for control of Gaza. Fortunately the Jews of Israel are armed and will not submit and be slaughtered like sheep as they were through the ages in exile. Long live Israel, and most of all the IDF.

Ah, the same "proof" Germany had that Poland had attacked its radio tower.

Good to see Jews finally agreeing with the wisdom of Kristollnacht: a sovereign state DOES have the right to collectively punish a tribe for crimes committed by its members.

Sieg, Bibi!

June 21, 2014 at 5:10 pm

The Palestinians are the underdog in the conflict, that is to say, they are not the ones with the power, Israel is. Lets look at why the kidnapping happened.... why you ask? B/C of the "occupation".
Nearly everything bad in the territories that happens is blamed on the "occupation". The Palestinians want to paint a picture of themselves as the victim and show it to the world. They may be victims, but in many cases, they are victims OF THEIR OWN CHOICES- like supporting a terrorist group.
But the world and the NYT dont care about that. They just want a headline.

June 21, 2014 at 9:55 am

What a disgustingly biased article. And for the record, Israel are the oppressors, Palestine doesn't have the power, money, influence, military power (it has no military/army) to be capable of oppressing Israel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fact-Finding_Mission_on_Israeli_Settlements.

Anti Israel bias in the new york times? are you serious? Anyone knowledgeable on the topic and wanting to be "balanced", which i'm sure is the way you want to be perceived, wouldn't post a picture supported by CAMERA. Either bias or incompetent or uninformed

I'd like to share a comment I read on Yahoo in response to cowardly attacks on Israel by a Lebanese Maronite Christian named David (probably Daoud in Arabic) which says it all:

Let it be known that there are other millions of Arabs, Maronite, Coptic Christians as me and Muslims who support Israel & love it regardless the general American coward racists, US & International left-wing pigs, and insidious evil leftist American-Jews & insidious, evil, cunning Brooklyn based Ultra-Orthodox Hassidic Jews intent on destroying Israel I love but only bring shame and disgrace upon the Jewish nation, unlike heroic secular Israeli tough warrior Jews who I admire, majority who originated from Arab countries, sharing looks, language & culture unlike majnun Palestinians whose chilling war cry is Itbach al Yahud, meaning slaughter the Jews, which no matter how cunning, sneaky, barbaric and violent their means, always r defeated by the Israeli fighters.

See: We Lebanese Thank Israel For Its Help, Muslims for Israel, and Female Arab Soldier: "I Would Sacrifice My Life for Israel" YouTube.

Before they created the "occupied" myth, in 1929 these Palestinian Nazis brutally slaughtered the entire unarmed Jewish of Hebron, men, women, children, hundreds more between 1929 and 1936 under the protection of the British, caused the death of 23,000+ Israeli young man and women who died defending Israel during their wars of proxy, and a week before Dir Yassin they murdered and mutilated 100 Israeli doctors and nurses ambushed in their ambulances on the way Mt. Scorpius Hospital and as IDF became a fact, and they could not just murder and maim Jews at will, so these cunning brutal Nazi Palestinian cowardly goons created the myth of being "victimized" to justify their murder and maiming of civilians, whining from one side of the mouths saying “we want peace” and from the left of the mouth Arafat the murderer would order his death squads to go slaughter Jews and Christians in Arabic. They not only murder Israelis, but also murdered an estimated 100,000 of my Lebanese Maronite Christian people including two of my uncles, aunts, and thirteen cousins.

If u who hate Israel were real humanists, you'd be in Syria where the real human rights abuses and killings (so far 160,000 killed, thousands maimed, raped, crucified, etc.) are happening. Cry victim to the media Nazi Palestinians are lucky indeed they're not dealing with King Hussein of Jordan who in one weekend in September 1970 (Black September) killed 10,000 of them. So u American and foreign maggots don't fool us Christian and also Muslims who love the tough no BS Israeli people. They don't care if u love or hate them as u will never defeat them in battle or spirit as they have what y'all lack, integrity, tenacity and honor.

We Arab Lebanese Maronite and other Christians celebrate and love secular Israel, IDF in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord & Savior: يسوع المسيح, while u wallow in your hate and anti-Zionism.

See: We Lebanese Thank Israel For Its Help, Muslims for Israel, Muslims For Israel, and Female Arab Soldier: "I Would Sacrifice My Life for Israel" YouTube.

June 21, 2014 at 1:08 pm

The Times dares to show a slightly critical view of the thugs that run Israel (and are addicted to the crack pipe of U.S. aid) and a torrent of mud is slung their way. Hmmmm why is it that teens MURDERED for daring to commemorate the biggest disaster to their people in recent memory ends up on p 27 of the paper but some missing teens are page 1 news? The comments on the Times posted here are ridiculous.

June 21, 2014 at 1:18 pm

You fail to mention that the root cause of the kidnappings and all this conflict is the oppressive, racist occupation of palestinian lands. you also failed to mention that these settlers are Obnoxious Racist thief's who don't belong there in the first place among hundreds of thousands of palestinians.

the liberal media dislikes Israel because it's a winner...liberals hate winners, they need underdogs to champion. Since before Shakespeare's time Jews had been the eternal underdogs of Europe. And when Israel was resurrected the liberals projected bloodthirsty Arabs ready destroy the great Jewish hope. But when Israel kept on winning Liberals had to find a new underdog, the Palestinians. And to seal the deal, Israel went conservative and intolerable situation for the NYT crowd.

But what the West failed to grasp about Iraq they also have failed to grasp about the Palestinians. If Israel wasn't between the two territories, there's the very real possibility that another Syria would be taking place there.

While the Israel leadership may seem rather moribund and bigoted, you have to ask the big question what would it be getting in any deal with the Palestinians. One side won't even admits its a Jewish homeland and the other is pledged to its destruction. Doesn't seem like much of a deal.

June 21, 2014 at 1:21 pm

Even the most liberal news sources don't tell the Truth about Palestine because of this monopoly the AIPAC has over the media, and anyone who dares mention the truth is an immediate anti-semite and will never win election in Congress.

June 21, 2014 at 3:03 am

To bad the Times Won't tell it's Shrinking reader base that it's circulation is down 78% in 5 years.Advertising is down 71% in 5 years.The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA)

June 21, 2014 at 5:37 am

That is because New York Times primarily owned by lebanese Slim (one of the richest oligarchs) is now officially a POS newspaper.

June 20, 2014 at 9:51 pm

There were no tanks used at all. Shabak, IDF, Border Patrol, Special Forces... but no tanks.

I'd like to share a comment I read on Yahoo in response to cowardly attacks on Israel by a Lebanese Maronite Christian named David (probably Daoud in Arabic):

Message from an Arab Maronite Christian who admires Israel and mighty IDF, it's melting pot of brown, white, and black well-armed tough Jewish warriors supported by their equally brave and tough Druze, Muslim Bedouin, and Christian Israeli-Arab IDF fighter brothers and sisters at arms who saved my Maronite Christian people in Lebanon from extermination by the Nazi Palestinians.

Ironic racist statements coming from u foreign and American POS maggots occupying lands of the Native Americans u White European racist maggot forefathers stole casting those they did not murder (i.e. Wounded Knee) into concentration camps aka “reservations”; u occupy Texas and California stolen from Mexico, enslaved, tortured, lynched, segregated, discriminated and still do the black people, murdered hundreds of thousands of German, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Iraqi, Afghan, Yemeni, etc. civilians including pregnant women, children, babies, and more recently u gassed 1,200+ innocent Syrian civilians to death in name of u filthy dollar. So who r u to pretend u r the Holy F Grail of righteousness, murdering and maiming innocents, spying, lying, pontificating, extorting and betraying u allies? If u were real humanists, you'd be in Syria where the real human rights abuses and killings (so far 160,000 killed, thousands maimed, raped, crucified, etc.) are happening. Cry victim to the media Nazi Palestinians are lucky indeed they're not dealing with King Hussein of Jordan who in one weekend in September 1970 (Black September) killed 10,000 of them.

U American hater maggots justify murdering and maiming of civilians as war, or war on terrorism yet u attack Israel's right of self-defense as they fight the Palestinian Nazi enemy cowardly and cunningly using civilians, schools, mosques and ambulances as human shields, supported by criminal collaborator anti-Israel US media that covered up the slaughter of my Maronite Christian community in Lebanon but wailed over Sabra-Shatila when a few hundred Palestinians were killed, not even a fraction of the tens of thousands of Christians they murdered and maimed. Unlike u and u nation, Israel doesn't murder civilians deliberately as u did in Dresden and Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Iraq, etc., nor do they deliberately butcher and maim civilians like u US media darling Nazi Palestinian thugs. U hate Israel as it irks u to see tough armed Jews kicking rear-ends; ghetto victimized Jews no more as these Israelis, well trained warrior Jews, majority of whom originated from Arab countries, will bash your maggot racist faces if you mess with them as exemplified by their winning all the wars.

U commentator pigs squeal re Israeli alleged apartheid and racism, but when was the last time u daughter or sister dated a black man or someone of a different faith, u laughable hypocrites. I'm glad Israelis r armed capable of defending themselves against u maggot racists. Your hate will never defeat valiant Israel and mighty IDF as we Arab Lebanese Maronite Christians plus 180 million Brazil & US Evangelist Christians, millions of additional Christians, Muslims and countries stand united with it in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord & Savior: يسوع المسيح, while u impotently vomit hate on yourselves.

Boycott the NYT . Boycott
Don't buy the f.....g paper until they stat art reporting the truth .Israel has many haters, at least stand up and say"we will report only out blind biased opinion and we'll try to influence the world through out paper". Don't blindly report and overlook the reason things happen whilst only reporting what your eyes see. Investigate the issue and report all sides of it, not just what your reporter sees and doesn't understand or worse ignores!
BOYCOTT!!!

charles mansons satanic cult murdered 8 people in 1969
then he carved an X on his forehead to mimic malcom X and promoted race war
then while in prison he turned the X into a swastika and promoted the idea he was the antichrist

all of charles mansons vicitims were white....... jewish media labeled him a racist and brought the swastika and hitler into "racism" making a religon a race

now it is ban guns because singing about violence is freedom of speech?

Charles Mansons satanic cult killed 8 people................ one of the most popular goth singers today promotes charles manson and satanism................... how did people not think school shootings would happen

Satanist and Al Qaida and other radical interpretations of religions just want to cause arguments

yeah and 10 million kids who all think its fun and games ok........ and then 20 of them that dont think its funny and want to be serious and they want to kill people.... thats 20 school shootings and 100s of kids dead

that’s how life works.......... he could of promoted work and some people would be workaholics.......... he could of promoted spaghetti and people would eat it.................... people say it is "just TV" and then pay huge amounts of money to buy commercial spots................. its "just TV" and then create shows like sesame street.............. its "just music"............... so is the alphabet song

Absolutely the missing kids is horrible. What the NY times is pointing out is Israel's overreaction-or rather well thought out collective punishment action because of it. If a New Yorker abducted a NJ teen in Manhattan, should the police crack down on every New Yorker? Israeli politicians wave like a banner their decision to use this opportunity to "teach the Palestinians a lesson". I am not arguing that there are not militant Palestinians. I am arguing, as I believe the NY Times is, that this pre-meditated, illegal and disgusting show of collective punishment should cause the state of Israel shame. Instead, their leadership is proud. For 60 years the Israelis have worn the Holocaust as a cloak against all criticism. As time wears on, the fact that they are as radical, brutal, and uncaring about other religions as the Nazi's were to them becomes clearer and clearer.

June 22, 2014 at 12:34 am

The articles are a clear reflection of present day America. We are now by design a truly liberal nation. We have been duped by the left for so long, and their plan was a good one. Our nation is no longer one of unity, but divide. the media cares more about transgender and gay rights then wellness for the rest of the population. the game is over the american bubble is continuing to bust and the rich will get richer and the poor stays poor, but mark these words..the war within is close, and sides will be drawn. the battle for America will happen. sooner than we all think! good luck friends

Bring back our boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or their will be hell to pay! We value life, we will do everything in our power to bring those boys home! Everything! Screw off Arabs, go kill each other somewhere else!

And the Germans were right to stick all the Jews in the ghettos. How many people were involved in this kidnapping? 5, 10, 100? Is it morally right to punish everyone? The Germans thought so. Jimmy Carter was right. It is an Apartheid.